An Interview with Ghost Busting Gamers, Grant Wilson and Mike Richie

Grant Wilson is best known as one of the co-founders The Atlantic Paranormal Society from which sprang the shows Ghost Hunters, Ghost Hunters International, and Ghost Hunters Academy. In recent years Grant and his childhood friend, Michael Richie joined forces to form a gaming company, Rather Dashing Games. These industrious gentlemen now have published five games, a steampunk novel and much more to come.

John N Collins (JNC): Could you give us a quick lineup of your products?

Grant and Michael: As far as books go, we have only released the first one so far. Our second book should be out late summer/early fall. As for products from our company Rather Dashing Games, we currently have five games out with two more to be released sometime this year. Our two bestsellers, Dwarven Miner and Pirates, Ninjas, Robots, and Zombies are fun, approachable titles that scratch the itch of more complex games. Our next game, Graveyards, Ghosts, and Haunted Houses is going to be a blast!

JNC: You also have a novel that you co-authored that is of the steampunk genre. Tell us a bit about it.

Mike: It’s called Brotherhood of the Strange. It’s the first of our hopefully many Steampunk adventures. We both love Steampunk, and wanted to make an immersive sandbox style world that included the many various aspects of the genre, rather than only focusing on one or two of them. The story focuses around an inventor named Degory Priest who is trying to secretly undo the damage done by the Brotherhood of the Strange, a secret society to which he and his estranged brother Edward belong.

JNC: How did you two become involved in steampunk?

Grant & Mike: We have always loved Jules Verne, Sherlock Holmes, & H.P. Lovecraft, as well as old machinery and clockwork. Once we saw this emerging genre at cons such as Dragoncon, we both fell in love and dove head first into it. Grant even cosplayed as a steampunk ghostbuster. A “Spectral Eradicator” if you will. Mike enjoys prop making and coming up with believable ways that the fictional technologies could work in the world of Steampunk.

JNC: Now Grant, this may surprise some of your fans, but I hear you also have been pursuing another career, this one in music. Tell us about that.

Grant: Well, I taught myself how to play piano and guitar when I was 14. I’ve been composing every since. I’ve been in a few alternative rock bands over the years but it wasn’t until relatively recently that I was able to focus on it. I have my band, Carpetshark, that is currently on hold for a few, but my big push is with my solo piano music. I have one album out right now 1.618 and another on the way Liquid Earth. It’s just very relaxing piano music. I was really surprised by how people reacted to it. I get emails from people saying they are getting married to it, meditating to it, and how it helps kids focus, or rest. All good stuff!

JNC: Will you be bringing CD’s and Games to sell to the convention in addition to copies of your books for signing?

G&M: I imagine we will!

JNC: Games, Books, Movies, and Ghosts! Do you have any other surprises coming our way?

Grant: I don’t know about any more surprise categories but we will have many surprises in each of those categories. After our the Kingship series, we plan to write our baby; our series of high-fantasy novels we have been working on since we were teenagers. It’s an epic story that has grown and matured over the years. One we are very excited to tell.

JNC: Where can folks find more information on your games, books, music, and such?

JNC: Many of us were disappointed you couldn’t make it to the Wizard World Fan Festival in Chicago a few weeks ago but we are looking forward to seeing you in Cincinnati in a few weeks! Thanks so much for the update!

Grant: I was just as disappointed. Let’s collectively blame the weather!